In the Name of Humanity: Humanitarianism and its Antecedents
Since the end of the Cold War, humanitarian concern and mobilization – occasionally leading as far as military intervention -- has become a central feature of international relations. In Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, for example, the prevention of mass human rights violations was cited as justification for military involvement by ‘the international community,’ and humanitarianism has often mobilized non-state groups to a variety of kinds of involvement with foreign affairs. Human rights themselves acquired an unprecedented political salience. The CIH proposes to examine these developments in a historical perspective, focusing on several core issues.
One concerns the history of humanitarianism itself as a concept underlying political --and sometimes military -- action. From the Enlightenment, and with special prominence in the nineteenth century era of imperialism, populations have been mobilized and campaigns waged in the name of humanity. Charities, lobby-groups and relief agencies emerged to respond to the aftermath of wars of natural disasters, or to agitate on behalf of suffering fellow-humans facing slavery, destitution or colonial exploitation. How far should humanitarian action be connected to the values of liberalism, the practices of empire, or secularized versions of forms of faith? How have national traditions inflected how humanitarian causes were framed? How have the objects of humanitarian concern shifted over time, and how far has the balance changed between state, private and international actors? With what other forms of international mobilization did it compete? Institutional practices also need to be set against shifts in ideas and culture. Where did the concept of humanitarianism – along with related notions like humaneness and humanism -- come from, and what explains their prominence at certain periods? Are there regimes, faiths and ideologies which have identified themselves especially closely with it, and conversely are there polities and world-views that have seen humanism and humanitarianism as a sham or a pretence – a universalistic rhetoric to cloak the advancement of particular interests? Can we find alternatives to the notion of universal belonging in concepts of allegiance and loyalty organized along different lines – of family, community, or race, among others? And behind humanitarianism lies the more basic notion of what it is to be human. We will thus also explore the development of ideas about “common humanity,” and of the responsibilities and rights that have been thought to flow from it. In particular, we will seek to ascertain the relationship between the current idea of human rights and older and alternative conceptions of human solidarity.
Workshops meet on Fridays, 10am-12noon, in 513 Fayerweather Hall. All are welcome to attend.